Copyright

Now that the Licences for Europe has failed so comprehensively, it is
time to reflect on what types of voluntary or self-regulatory
initiatives are likely to work and which are likely to fail.

Last May, at the Stockholm Internet Forum, EDRi ran an “unconference”
session, which brainstormed about what characteristics a self-regulatory
initiative would need to have in order to be likely to succeed.
Participants produced eight criteria. To avoid failures or
counterproductive outcomes of such projects in the future, it would be
valuable for the Commission to develop a comprehensive methodology for
analysing the context and potential for success.

On 7 November 2013, during the closing session of the “Transmission of
culture during the digital era” event, Aurélie Filippetti, the French
Minister of Culture and Communication, announced a R&D partnership
between her ministry and the Open Knowledge Foundation France meant to
create a French public domain calculator.

The project will thus develop a tool to help establishing the legal
status of cultural works, giving the cultural sector the possibility to
use it as a pedagogical tool in order to better know the status of a
work and to help users in realizing whether they have passed out of
copyright into the public domain.

“We often say that a work has “fallen” into the public domain, as though
it falls into a state of disuse, abandonment or oblivion.

Ahead of the last meeting of the “Licences for Europe” initiative, EDRi
together with other four European civil rights organisations – Centrum
Cyfrowe, Kennisland, Modern Poland Foundation and La Quadrature
du Net – released, on 13 November 2013, the following joint press
release reaffirming the urgent need of an European Copyright reform.

Today, the Licenses for Europe experiment comes to an end. This initiative, launched almost a year ago was ostensibly an attempt to 'explore the potential and limits of innovative licensing and technological solutions in making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age'.

At the end of this process we are compelled to conclude that 10 months of meetings have largely failed to identify any solutions which can be backed by all, or even the majority of, stakeholders involved. It is evident that there is very little consensus among stakeholders about the appropriate approach to making EU copyright law and practice fit for the digital age.

French Socialist MEP Françoise Castex published her draft report on
private copying levies on 9 October. The biggest question that the
document raises is... are you serious, Ms Castex?

The policy issue being addressed is that “creators” are meant to be
“compensated” for private copies that are made of legally acquired
content, such as music or printed material. In some EU countries there
are no levies, in some EU countries there are low levels of levies.

French Socialist MEP Françoise Castex published her draft report on private copying levies on 9 October. The biggest question that the document raises is... are you serious, Ms Castex?

The policy issue being addressed is that “creators” are meant to be “compensated” for private copies that are made of legally acquired content, such as music or printed material. In some EU countries, there
are no levies, in some EU countries there are low levels of levies.

After three years of existence, Hadopi French authority in charge with
the infamous three-strikes gradual response system, has succeeded in
proving nothing but a large waste of public money.

To mark its 3-year anniversary, Hadopi has issued its activity report
which shows that, to the day, it has succeeded in ordering 1 sole
Internet disconnection and, on the other hand, it has experienced large
bureaucratic problems and issues with identifying subscribers.

Hadopi has sent a total of 1.912 million notifications to French
Internet subscribers as strike one, 186 153 follow-up letters as strike
2 and has caused 1 disconnection as strike 3.

Only for 2013, Hapodi costs the French taxpayers 5.4 million Euro, large
part of it spent to answer subscribers who make request regarding

AGECOM, Italy’s independent Electronic Communications Authority, is on
the verge of undertaking the power of ordering the removal of any online
content that it deems to be in violation of the copyright law, without
the need of the parliament or court approval.

Despite strong criticism from NGOs, ISPs, other companies or legal
practitioners, the authority’ new Draft Regulation on Copyright
Protection on Electronic Communication Networks allows it to black out
foreign sites and take down Italian ones alleged to have infringed the
copyright law, within 48 hours, without any court decision.

The legislation is to be passed definitively in November 2013 after a
decision from the European Union.

AGCOM’s bill will give the authority the power to order Internet access
provid